KYOTO — The four-day Asian Development Bank meeting addressed a host of general issues related to the bank's future. But one that got little in the way of detailed discussion is also one of the most politically contentious: corruption.
In his closing statement, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said the ADB governors emphasized that the bank should continue to promote good governance and anticorruption activities. But no specific proposals for doing so came out of the meeting.
The ADB has long been attacked by both international nongovernmental organizations and former ADB officials as an institution that turns a blind eye to corruption. International economists, lawyers and NGOs keeping track of ADB funding estimate that, on average, 30 percent of all ADB loans, amounting to billions of dollars, cannot be accounted for. The ADB itself has no accurate record of how much money has been siphoned off.